Comedy club broadcast says state of politics is 'no joke'

A Green Party local election broadcast to be shown on BBC and ITV will be set in a comedy club in Little Venice - but its contents are no joke, say the producers.

In the TV slot, to be show on Wednesday 27 April 2011, paty leader and Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas ambushes a live audience to talk about the May polls across England.

The Green Party Election Broadcast, entitled 'No Joke', features Dr Lucas delivering a 90-second pitch to an unsuspecting audience. She highlights how critical the local elections are for the current state of Britain.

In her message, the Green Party leader urges the audience to elect councillors who will fight to limit the damage of the cuts faced by local government and to vote for a genuine opposition that abides by its principles.

The broadcast is currently hosted online on the Party’s YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BKo_NlwZOQ and Facebook fanpage (facebook.com/thegreenparty) as well as being promoted through Twitter (twitter.com/thegreenparty). It is also being supported by a blogger outreach campaign.

The campaign follows glue Isobar’s successful integrated General Election campaign in April 2010, which contributed to Caroline Lucas being the first Green MP to be elected to the Westminster parliament.

The Brighton Pavilion MP commented: “The local elections are a crucial opportunity for people to elect councillors who will fight to protect the most vulnerable from the savage public spending cuts faced by local government, and who can offer genuine political opposition on the issues that matter to us all."

She added: "The team at glue Isobar understood that message perfectly and came up with a fantastic concept for a Party Election Broadcast that really breaks the mould. I won’t pretend it was easy standing in front of a live comedy audience for the first time, but glue Isobar made sure it was a positive experience for everyone and we are all thrilled with the finished product.”

The pioneeering election broadcast was directed by Austen Humphries, who is part of the award winning production company Rattling Stick.